Jocky Sanderson started flying paragliders in 1968, his first wing being a 9 cell Falhawk Athlete. which had been a 21st birthday present from his family, He had already been flying hang gliders for a couple of years, and, as a teenager was involved in leaching paddle sport at home and abroad, Jocky was. and still is, a keen climber.
Being self taught (there weren‘t many paragliding schools back in 1988), Jocky soon realised that there was a rising need Ior new pilots to be taught to paraglide safely, and before he was 22, he started his own school near Rossthwaile in the Lake District, the school was Eagle Quest (Jocky’s first fledgling flight had been from Eagle Crag, he says it was "interesting!“).
Due to his love of teaching paragliding, and in a quest for more knowledge and experience. Jocky started to compete internationally in 1990. becoming a regular member of the British team, alongside a host of other "legendary" pioneering paraglider pilots, Jocky was ranked third in the world in 1995.
In the early 90‘s Jocky had also become a test pilot in his quest for more knowledge and understanding, as well as to help sponsor his competition flying and, amongst others, Jocky tested for Gin, Nova, Firebird and AFNOR, the French equivalent of the British Standards Institute.
Jocky's experience as a kayak instructor. paragliding instructor, competition pilot and test pilot placed him perfectly to become one of the world’s first Simulation d'lncidents en Vol (SlV) instructors (SlV in English stands for ‘simulated incidents in flight',
As the 80's became the 90's, Jacky started teaching SlV skills to international groups at pilots in France, then in 91, he was the first to teach SIV in what is now the paragliding Mecca of OIu Deniz in Turkey, Over the years, Jocky has trained approximately 4,000 pilots in SIV skills, and is still running SlV courses for between 150/200 pilots a year in France. Turkey and Australia. There is no doubt that Jocky is one of the most experienced SlV instructor in the world and as long as he keeps teaching SIV, no one else can even get close to catching up,
In 1995 Jacky started his current BHPA paragliding school, Escape, where he teaches at all levels, from ab initio
students to tandem flying, through cross country courses around the world, competition ilying, Acro and, of course, SIV courses.